Who'da Thunk It?

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This Sunday afternoon, March 11, the men and women of the Broad Channel VFW Post #260 Auxiliary will once again host their annual St. Patrick's Day dinner for the disabled veterans who reside at St. Albans Hospital.

After tearful farewells to their families, these individuals went off to war where they saw and did things young men and women should not have to see or do. While many of them came home unscathed, many made the ultimate sacrifice and did not return, while others returned damaged in body or spirit or both. What many of you may not realize is that, as the years pass, the pain of combat-related disability pales in comparison to the heartache of feeling forgotten by those who remained on the home front.

Why not take a few minutes out of your busy schedule and stop by the VFW hall Sunday afternoon to speak to some of these vets for a few minutes while thanking them for their service and sacrifice? I guarantee you the vets will sincerely appreciate it and you will come away feeling better for the experience! Afterwards, stop by the canteen at the rear of the Post and say hello and thank your friends and neighbors who work so hard and unselfishly throughout the year at the Post to ensure our veterans are not forgotten!

Here's hoping all of you managed to get through this past weekend's strong nor’easter without too much difficulty. This is the second major storm to hit the region thus far this year. Last week’s nor’easter was particularly bad, with an area of low pressure holding the storm off the coast, resulting in widespread coastal flooding.

The storm tide flooding was exacerbated by higher than normal tides brought on by a nearly full moon, adding an additional couple of feet to the water line at high tide. The worst of the flooding came with Saturday evening's six-foot high tide at 9:44 p.m.

A tidal surge from the nor'easter of more than 2.5 feet flooded many sections of the Channel with a storm tide of almost nine feet. At the time, we had winds of 30 mph gusting to almost 50 mph, but thankfully they were coming from the north or matters could have been much worse. Nonetheless, tidal flooding rose above the first steps of the Broad Channel VFW on Shad Creek Road Saturday evening, so you know it was a big blow, not unlike the significant coastal flooding that took all of us by surprise back in February of 2016 resulting in property damage and the loss of numerous cars both in Broad Channel as well as Rockaway! The good news is that the new bay end of street bulkheads and raised roadways on both West 11th and West 12th Roads served to keep both roads free from flooding, save for a couple of inches of tidal flooding that encroached the bay ends of both blocks as a result of damaged or missing canal bulkheads with Saturday evening's extraordinarily high tide.

If anyone out there is still questioning the efficacy of the ongoing Capital Project to construct new bulkheads, infrastructure and raised streets in our community, consider this: I was up and about early on Sunday morning and noticed several non-West 12th Road residents moving their cars off 12th Road where they had parked Saturday evening prior to the unusually high tide because of a lack of spaces on the Cross Bay median. Broad Channel residents intentionally parking on West 12th Road to avoid tidal flooding—Who’da thunk it?